MSNLive
June 30, 2003
Digital Dish Diva says:
Welcome to MSN Live! This afternoon we are pleased to welcome Liz Phair to MSN Live for the first time!
Digital Dish Diva says:
Liz will be talking about her new self-titled CD.
Digital Dish Diva says:
Welcome to MSN Live!
Liz Phair says:
Hey guys! How’s it hangin’?
marzchik263 in Onstage1 asks:
Are the “characters” in some of your songs (Jeremy – Jeremy Engle – and so many more) actual people? Could you give a specific example?
Liz Phair says:
I’ll go with Jeremy right there. It is a real person and my friends thought it was hilarious that I had to call him up and ask him if it was ok. (laughs) It was embarrassing because it’s wasn’t like his real family, just me imagining what his family was like. It was embarrassing for me to call the guy that I had a crush on that never liked me. Could you imagine what that was like?! That’s how far I’ll go for my art. (laughs)
MyFavoriteUnderwear in Onstage3 asks:
Hello Liz. The new record is superb. You are about to head on a solo tour and another with Jason Mraz, any hopes of coming to Florida? I don’t think you’ve ever toured here before.
Liz Phair says:
I’d love to come to Florida. I love that state! I spent a lot of time there vacationing growing up. I can’t say for sure I’ll be there, but I can say I’m almost sure we’ll be there this winter.
Animal_Girl_75 in Onstage1 asks:
Hi Liz, I’ve been a huge fan since Exile. I just wanted to ask: how do you manage to juggle your career, your family and still look so damn GOOD? I have serious respect and admiration for you. I wish you are successful in all that you do.
Liz Phair says:
First off, I love the name “Animal Girl”. I don’t trust anyone who doesn’t have animal intelligence; I don’t trust people who don’t have that animal intelligence. If you are too cerebral and you don’t have animal ways, you’re not from this earth. I bust my ass and I have a highly professional team to help me. (Laughs)
MeghanG03 in Onstage4 asks:
I read your letter to the “NY Times”. Were you really that upset by O’Rourke’s review?
Liz Phair says:
I was. I don’t mind if people don’t like the record but when she started talking about infantilizing my life… One of the things I want to do with my art is to make women feel better about their thoughts. By putting myself out there I’m hoping to pave the way. So it pissed me off. I was trying, with that article, to make her feel misrepresented, make her feel like that’s not here at all, because that’s how I felt. Also for my parents who live and die by the “New York Times” I felt I needed to protect them.
Digital Dish Diva says:
The mama bear in you came out!
Liz Phair says:
Absolutely!! The Mama Bear came out. (laughs)
OddlyPut in Onstage1 asks:
I still treasure my “Exile” vinyl, and now have become the envy of others just for having the ability to drop the stylus on that comfortable old friend. So, that is actually you playing your Musicmaster/Duo-Sonic on the new EP, correct?
Liz Phair says:
Yes.
Liz Phair says:
One of the hardest things living with larger productions on songs, people as long as I can remember have tried to take me off the music because I don’t play guitar very well. What I want to do on the website is put songs I have written on the road, things I’ve done live. I like to reassert myself. So that will just be my little voice and my guitar.
Musiciangonenuts in Onstage1 asks:
What sort of instrument will you be incorporating in your future album, are you going to mix other genres into your music. I love you Liz!
Liz Phair says:
I don’t know because sometimes I sit around harmonizing with household appliances and I wonder if I’ll ever use them. (laughs) Like when I brush my son’s teeth with an electric toothbrush, or hum to the sound of the fridge. I don’t know if I’ll use them but I like the vibrating humming noise.
marzchik263 in Onstage1 asks:
You have always received plenty of media exposure, how do you feel about the critics attacking you lately?
Liz Phair says:
I have been grateful to have such a long career of press accolades. It’s been a buffer. I’ve been a critic’s darling. Once you try and do something like I’m trying to do right now, I knew it was coming. I tried to brace myself, and it’s never fun, and at some point you get defensive, but don’t get in my way. You don’t have to like the record, but if they are actually going after me, I have to wonder if they have lives. It reminds me of a small town mentality when someone is too big for their britches.
Digital Dish Diva says:
You sound like a Grandpa. (laughs)
lifeisphair in Onstage1 asks:
Hey Liz, should I quit smoking?
Liz Phair says:
Yes! Absolutely! I smoked a while when I was younger and it took a bit of a time to get over the cravings, but once they’re gone, they’re gone and I think you should stick around here on planet Earth.
Fredia1 in Onstage1 asks:
What song of yours are you most proud of?
Liz Phair says:
I could never ever make that choice. There are so many I like for different reasons. I like the songs that surprise me. They don’t have to be popular. It’s a whole body thing where your ears are working and your mind is going, and it comes out so fast that I can sit back and be a listener. So I like songs like “Dogs of L.A.” and “Jeremy Engle” and “Headache” all freaked me out.
nue99 in Onstage1 asks:
Do you still feel the same way about raising your son as you did when you wrote Whip-Smart? How would you change the song if you wrote it to your son now?
Liz Phair says:
Interesting, because I wrote the song before I had a son it was just conjecture. I would say as a mother you spend more time parting practicalities. That song is about shoring him up against the evils of the world and I think being a mom it’s just gentler. They come into the world with their own agenda and you work around that. You don’t get to reinvent parenting (laughs) and you’re going to love it!
Liz Phair says:
It’s like the looking glass. I can’t describe it to you. My best friend had a baby and I remember standing in the cold Chicago air wondering how it could be worth it, but it is.
FrontlineAnt in Onstage2 asks:
dragonfire_817 says: Simply: I have a library of “Phair” songs that bookmark a phase in my life. Do you ever wonder how your music/lyrics affect other people and what meaning they may take on in their realm?
Liz Phair says:
I have to honestly say I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about my music’s role in other people’s lives just for the simple purpose, I have to feel like my music is unselfconscious and if I sit around thinking about my role, it keeps me from being creative and free. When people come up to me and tell me my music has shared a part of their lives, in a good way, I enjoy that. I needed them to get through this album and it’s the very best thing about what I do, that I have that place in people’s lives.
Sparky in Onstage4 asks:
Is there any artist that inspired you in your musical career?
Liz Phair says:
Countless. I definitely, my parents when I was young. Also Simon and Garfunkle, The Kinks (my babysitter left it one night and my brother absconded with it) (laughs), and Bob Dylan. I just remember going to sleep every night listening to music. I can’t pick just a few because I take in all music where ever I go.
slondo11 in Onstage4 asks:
Hey Liz, when your child grows up and listens to your records, are you apprehensive about how he’ll react?
Liz Phair says:
It’s funny because I had a good friend ask me that. We’ve been friends over this last year. She’s thinking about kids and she wanted to know what it would do to him. It’s something to think about, but for me, what’s going to mitigate his feelings, where he’s uncomfortable with something I said, but when he’s a teenager, he’ll find something to be uncomfortable with. He sees what I do on a day to day basis and he knows I’m normal and he’s got a traditional upbringing. Maybe that’ll be his thing, but maybe it won’t. Maybe he’ll just be upset by the way I drive. (laughs) It hurts my parents also. They don’t like their daughter construed a different way than she is and not know me. I do have a large network of friends that support me and I think he’ll be in that fold.
-_SunshineMomma_- in Onstage4 asks:
When you grew up did you dream of being a music artist or something else? If something else, what?
Liz Phair says:
I actually dreamed of being a visual artist. I grew up drawing all the time, like unstoppable. All over my brother’s papers and father’s work. I still secretly hope that I can do that later in my life. I think more like an artist than a musician and you get to express yourself. I studied art and worked with great artists like Nancy Spero and Leon Bsolub and Ed Paschke.
A-akiera in Onstage1 asks:
Besides singing what other hidden talent you have?
Liz Phair says:
(laughs) I like to think that I can dance. (LAUGHS) Now this has not been really tested other than the privacy of my home and/or special nights out. When I was growing up I had friends, we were like the Four Musketeers, and we had disco contests and I always lost! (laughs)
Digital Dish Diva says:
Disco hunh?
Liz Phair says:
Yeah. (laughs)
Digital Dish Diva says:
Liz, that’s all the time we have for today. This has been such a pleasure having you here to talk about your new self-titled album.
Digital Dish Diva says:
From all of us here at MSN Live, thanks for joining us here!
Digital Dish Diva says:
For tour dates visit http://www.lizphair.com
Liz Phair says:
Thank you for all your interest and all the great vibes and I can’t wait to come around on tour and I’ll actually be in the same space with everybody. That sounds so hippie like. (laughs) I did not mean it to sound so hippie. I really enjoyed talking about things I like to talk about. Thanks.